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2007 Legislative and Policy Positions
Transportation Funding
State Positions:
·
Protect highway account and Proposition 42 revenues to avoid diversion to
the General Fund during discussions on the 2007-2008 State Budget.
·
Monitor the legislative implementation of Propositions 1A-1E
approved by the voters in November 2006, and support efforts to expedite the
design of the projects in preparation for bid.
· Oppose efforts to slow implementation of Propositions 1A-1E with
non-relevant legislation.
· Support the Governor’s and Legislature’s focus on rebuilding
California's aging public infrastructure by seeking long term financial
commitments and solutions concerning the financing of California’s
transportation infrastructure.
Local Positions:
l
Monitor the actions of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) to ensure that Proposition A (TransNet Sales Tax Extension) is implemented in a
timely and competitive fashion.
l
Monitor the actions of the City of San Diego’s Freeway Congestion Strike
Team and continue to participate as a member of the Sorrento Valley Traffic
Subcommittee.
l
Work with Caltrans and District 11 System Planning Branch to insure that all
currently planned transportation projects in San Diego County are fully
funded and implemented. AGC will actively lobby Caltrans, SANDAG, the
Legislature, and the Governor’s Office concerning these projects. The AGC
General Engineering Contractors’ Council and the Government Relations
Committee will review a detailed listing of projects on a regular basis.
l
Participate in Transportation
California, a statewide coalition of contractors, businesses, and
construction labor unions, in order to accelerate investment in
transportation.
Infrastructure
Funding
l
AGC supports public entities adopting comprehensive, long-term
infrastructure funding programs. Public entities have the responsibility to
ensure that the vertical and horizontal infrastructure under their control
needs to be maintained and modernized on a schedule that keeps the value of
the public asset from deteriorating. Public entities must allocate a proper
amount of their budgets to renovating and maintaining infrastructure. AGC
will work with public entities to ensure their infrastructure investments
are adequate. We will support revisiting on a regular basis the regulations
at the local, state, and federal levels to insure that the process is
efficient and effective.
Prevailing Wage
·
Monitor actions of the Department of
Industrial Relations (DIR) and the Office of the Labor Commissioner that
will have the impact of expanding the use of prevailing wage for offsite
construction and fabrication and traditional private work.
·
Amend DIR’s position relating to
off-site material trucking on public projects to parallel the Federal
Davis-Bacon Act.
Wage Order 16
l
Continue to monitor implementation of Wage Order 16, and explore
solutions that will provide flexibility for the construction industry,
relating to meal and rest periods taken by construction employees,
tool requirements, and
other miscellaneous provisions that are now being developed by the Labor
Agency and implemented by the Division of Labor Standards in San Diego.
Project Labor Agreements
l
AGC believes that all state and local public entities should pass
legislation that mirrors Executive Order 13202 which was signed by President
Bush on 2/17/01. This Executive order requires federal agencies issuing
grants, providing financial assistance, or entering into cooperative
agreements for construction projects or any construction manager acting on
the government’s behalf to ensure that bid specification or other
controlling documents do not require contractors or subcontractors to enter
into or to adhere to agreements with labor organizations. AGC will propose
provisions
accomplishing
this to public entities in the San Diego market.
l
Oppose any entity that attempts to file “environmental protection”
actions that are actually attempts to leverage PLAs on projects.
Workers’ Compensation
• Continue
to support regulatory changes needed to make California's workers'
compensation system competitive with other states.
Construction Defects
State Positions:
·
Support legislation that equitably distributes costs between responsible
subcontractors and reduces unnecessary litigation.
·
Provide a leadership role in bringing the construction industry together to
address the lack of availability and affordability of liability insurance.
· Oppose legislation that seeks as a remedy the elimination of Type 1
indemnity agreements for commercial construction.
Local
Positions:
·
Continue to support legislation and regulations that support the
concept of "SB-800 - Right To Repair Act", passed in 2003, giving builders
an opportunity to repair construction defects before litigation is allowed
on new home construction (which includes condos).
·
Support legislation to expand “Right To Repair” to commercial and
apartment projects.
·
Support legislation and/or tort reform designed to limit inflated
or "frivolous" construction defect claims by building owners, users and
homeowners.
Public Works Procurement
State Position:
·
Establish a public works procurement task force to review policies
regarding public works bidding and contract award procedures by public
agencies in order to establish positions on pending legislation.
Local
Positions:
·
Establish an Alternative Project Delivery Methods Task Force,
which will help develop positions on alternative project delivery methods
that are either being used or being considered for use by public entities.
· Oppose efforts that will limit competition on projects by packaging
smaller projects into a single “mega” project, which could effectively
eliminate most contractors from participating on the project.
·
Strongly support an inclusive procurement process for all size contractors
to create as much diversity as possible.
·
Monitor the progress of existing design-build projects and assist in the
evaluation of those projects to establish a basis for future design-build
authorization.
·
AGC understands that many public owners would like the flexibility to use
project delivery systems other than design-bid-build. AGC’s position is
that if a public entity uses an alternative delivery system the system must
first be reviewed by legal counsel to insure that the delivery system
complies with state and local laws and is as fair, objective, cost-effective
and free of political influence as the competitive bid system. AGC strongly
opposes public entities moving forward with a project delivery system that
may involve legal challenges because of the delivery system selected. AGC
supports delivery systems that involve the general contractor providing the
construction expertise and financial/bonding stability for each project.
· Work with San Diego City staff and industry stakeholders on the
implementing ordinance to allow the city to use CM-at Risk as an alternative
delivery method.
Pre-qualification
State Position:
·
Work with the Department of
Industrial Relations to modify the existing local agency prequalification
program so it doesn’t discriminate against contractors.
Local
Position:
l
If pre-qualification is used by a local
public entity, AGC will urge utilizing the rules developed by DIR as the
basis of the pre-qualification. Modify the pre-qualification process
implemented in February, 2003 by the City of San Diego.
City of San Diego Subcontractor Outreach Program (SCOP)
l
Encourage the City of San Diego to eliminate SCOP. Continue to work with
city staff in their efforts to increase subcontractor participation.
Emerging Business / Disadvantaged
Business Enterprises (DBE)
l
AGC supports public entities complying with Prop 209 and the series of
recent court decisions,
including Western States Paving vs. State of Washington,
that define the public entity responsibilities concerning laws or ordinances
that favor one group of citizens over another. AGC supports using
mentor/protégé programs to build a strong group of small and historically
underutilized firms within the industry.
l
Monitor the implementation of public agency disparity/availability studies
to make sure they are following the provisions of the Western States case.
Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Participation (DVBE)
· Support
efforts to provide opportunities for certified DVBEs when awarding projects,
but oppose regulations that would have the impact of imposing bidding preferences on public
works construction projects.
Immigration Reform
· Reform should be comprehensive:
addressing both future economic needs for future workers and undocumented
workers already in the United States.
·
Reform should strengthen national
security by providing for the screening of foreign workers, creating a
disincentive for illegal immigration, and provisions to protect our border.
·
Reform should strengthen the rule of
law by establishing clear, sensible immigration laws that are efficiently
and vigorously enforced.
·
Reform should create an immigration
system that functions efficiently for employers, workers, and government
agencies.
·
Reform should create a program that
allows hard working, tax paying undocumented workers to earn legal status.
·
Reform should ensure that U.S.
workers are not displaced by foreign workers.
·
Reform should ensure that all legal
workers enjoy the same labor law protections.
Local
Preference
l
AGC opposes local bid preference except when used as a “mirror preference”.
Payment
Bond Claims
·
Sponsor legislation that would require suppliers and
sub tier subcontractors in public works projects to give
a 20-day preliminary notice to be able to file a payment bond claim.
Prompt Pay
·
AGC opposes any local public entity “adjusting” California’s prompt
pay law. All issues concerning prompt pay should be addressed in the State
Legislature.
Retention
l
The amount of retention withheld
should be reduced in a proportionate manner as the contract progresses.
This policy needs to be worked out with agencies and owners on an agency by
agency and owner by owner basis.
Mechanic’s Lien Law Revision
State Position:
· Monitor legislative efforts of the Law Revision Commission to
revise the existing mechanic’s lien law.
OCIP
l
AGC opposes OCIP on public projects less than $100 million and supports the
concept only on these projects after a review of the individual OCIP
program.
Public Entity Funding Disclosure
l AGC believes that public agencies must be required and obligated to disclose
the funding source and amount for each project in bid documents.
Force Account Work
l
AGC opposes the extension of
existing force account work by public agencies. Work with the Construction
Industry Force Account Council to develop legislation to limit public
agencies from performing work with their own forces.
Reverse Auction Bidding
l
Oppose legislative that would allow "reverse auction bidding" by publicly
regulated utilities, cities, and other public agencies.
Contractor
Licensing – LLC Companies
·
Support legislation allowing LLC
incorporated companies to be licensed as contractors by the Contractors
State License Board.
Workforce Development
/ Career
Technical Education / Apprenticeship
· Monitor the implementation of Proposition 1D, which includes
funding for the construction of career tech and vocational education
facilities. Promote public and legislative awareness of the need and
benefits of funding career and vocational education for the construction
industry.
· Support legislation pertaining to apprenticeship standards that
allows for expansion of responsible programs that will bring more
individuals to the industry.
l
AGC will continually petition the California Apprenticeship Council to allow
expansion of legitimate apprenticeship programs that will provide
apprenticeship opportunities for more Californians.
l Continue to support the Construction Tech Academy, which opened in September
2002.
Cal OSHA Regulatory Issues
·
Work with CalOSHA Standards Board on specific proposed requirements
on dry cutting of masonry materials.
Air Quality
l Oppose
legislation/regulations mandating unrealistic diesel retrofit timelines for
construction equipment and continue discussions between the Construction
Industry Air Quality Coalition (CIAQC) and the State Air Resources Board.
San Diego Regional Water Control Board Storm Water Runoff Permit
l
Storm-water runoff is a very difficult problem for the construction
industry. We support the basic concept of controlling runoff from
construction projects to help the environment, especially in San Diego with
our outstanding beaches. We acknowledge that law requires that storm-water
runoff must be contained on construction projects. AGC’s position is that
both public and private owners have the responsibility to design the plan to
contain storm-water runoff. It is not the responsibility of the
contractor. The contractor has the responsibility to build the properly
designed storm-water runoff plan that the owner has designed and permitted
for each project. If a violation of the storm-water runoff occurs on a
construction project, the contractor should be responsible only if the
contractor does not comply with the plan provided by an engineer retained by
the owner. AGC opposes any rules that hold a contractor responsible for
runoff plans that do not work.
l
Participate as a member of the Coalition for Clean Water and a
Healthy Economy, and monitor the actions of the San Diego Regional Water
Quality Control Board as it moves forward with the revisions to its Storm
Water Permit.
“Supercenter” Retail Stores
· AGC
opposes any ordinance that restricts a particular class or category of any
commercial, industrial, or institutional project from being built, as long
as the project is zoned and planned according to existing law.
Airport
l Monitor
the implementation of the alternative project delivery methods for future
projects.
l
AGC supports efforts to improve San Diego’s air service infrastructure.
Construction Advisory Boards / Public Entities
l AGC does not believe that it is appropriate to create official/appointed
advisory boards. AGC believes that the industry can better communicate and
work more effectively with public agencies through liaison committees.
Coalition Building
· Continue to formulate a Rebuild San Diego Coalition with other construction
and non-construction associations that have an interest in investment in the
local infrastructure.
Governor Schwarzenegger Administration
·
Continue efforts to recommend
individuals for appointment to Departments, Boards, and Commissions, and
establish relationships with appointed members of the Governor’s
administration.
Advocacy / Legislative Grass Roots Activities
·
Attend AGC’s Annual Legislative Day
at the State Capitol.
·
Expand member involvement in the
grass roots “legislative network”.
·
Increase Distribution of Monday
Morning Quarterback and Legislative Bulletins.
·
Prepare annual “Legislative
Scorecard” to track votes by elected officials.
· Utilize and enhance the San Diego
County Public Agency Contact List on AGC Website.
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